Carl W. Kenney II is an award winning columnist and novelist. He is committed to engaging readers into a meaningful discussion related to matters that impact faith and society. He grapples with pondering the impact faith has on public space while seeking to understand how public space both hinders and enhances the walk of faith.

Monday, May 2, 2016

Why "Bern or Bust" is hard for black people to concede

I understand the “Bern or Bust” movement.

It’s a challenge voting for the other candidate after
believing in the revolution.It’s
especially difficult when the other candidate represents everything you fought
to defeat. How can you legitimately cast your vote for a person married to Wall
Street while willing to bomb a foreign country just to prove who carries the
biggest stick?

Those millennials fighting on behalf of change aren’t crazy
for refusing to jump on the Hillary bandwagon. They have real concerns that
make it difficult to distinguish between Trump and Hilary as the lesser of two
evils. They need valid reasons to accept the call for party unity.

Many will refuse to vote. Check your Facebook newsfeed.
Articles are circulating that justify handing this election over to the
Republicans while building the base for the 2020 election.

That argument works for white voters who don’t carry the
legacy of black people who fought for and died for the right to vote.The willingness to give up is rooted in the
type of privilege that fails to concede the hardships taken to get the right to
vote.They don’t have to listen to
grandmothers and grandfathers who stood on the other side of police brutality while
marching just to obtain the right to vote.

Not voting is a position engrained from a culture shaped in assumptions
of power.Black folks have always
compromised when it comes to making these types of decisions. There is
something to be said about having the privilege to forfeit an election for the
sake of something better in four years. While some millennials are willing to
lose to make a point later, black people can’t afford to lose.

Those who fight for “Bern or Bust” fail to consider the
loses black people potentially face with each election. There are few safe bets
among the people blacks support to become President of the United States.

How can blacks trust the Bern enough to not vote?

The majority of blacks aren’t down with the revolution. Black
millennials insist older blacks have failed them, and have sold out to the
Democratic Party in a way that jeopardizes the future of the black community.

Those older black voters say they have no reason to trust the
Bern. They lack enough evidence to forfeit the election. They ask, what has
Bernie done, prior to his bid for President, to give black voters reason to not
to vote?

Those older black voters say too much has been invested to
justify not voting. Why should black people commit to not voting after the
Obama years? What resistance will be established to shield them from the white
people fuming after the Obama Administration? The post-Obama years may witness
the type of backlash that stirs America back to the days before the passage of
the Civil Rights Act.

That message has already been spewed. We are witnessing a
rise in white hate groups. Some argue that the deaths of unarmed black men,
women and children by police, is proof of implicit bias and systemic racism
that results in mass incarceration and a disregard of black lives. What will it
mean over the next four years to have a president that fails to consider the
implications of these matters as it relates to public policy?

Black people have always voted for the lesser of evils.

There has never been an election, prior to Obama, were blacks
felt confident the person chosen understood and honored the concerns of black
people. Sadly, many are left troubled by how race and racism impeded Obama’s
ability to press forward on an agenda that addressed many of those concerns.

If the first black President wasn’t able to push a national
black agenda, why should blacks trust a white President to achieve that goal? Those
who feel the Bern believe the difference is Bernie’s socialist perspective. They
say his focus on Wall Street, universal healthcare and free college tuition is
enough to wait on the revolution.

But, what happens as we wait?

Who gets appointed to the Supreme Court in a Trump
administration? What wars will we be left to fight and what will happen to the
bond built with Cuba? Will the push to build the wall negatively impact relationships
with Mexico and will Trump’s rhetoric regarding the Islamic community impede
the way we think about diversity and inclusion?

Will we witness a rise in laws that limit the number of
black people who vote? Will a Trump presidency influence advances toward equal
pay for women? What happens to reproductive rights and efforts to increase the
minimum wage? What can we expect related to protecting the rights of members of
the LGBTQ community? What about efforts to grant Christians the right to
discriminate against members of other faith traditions?

There’s too much to be lost within the space of four years.
This is a point that black voters know by experience. The election isn’t always
about supporting the person you believe in the most. It’s often about blocking
the person you fear the most.

Black voters know the consequences of electing a President
that refuses to acknowledge the power of black voters.

Black people watched Regan kick-off his 1980 presidential
campaign in Neshoba, Mississippi, a stone’s throw away from where three civil
rights workers were murdered in 1964. Reagan pledged to undermine civil rights.
Regan called the Voting Rights Act of 1964 “humiliating to the South” and
implied he wouldn’t support it when it came up for renewal in 1982.

Reagan lashed out against affirmative action. He told
reporters “I’m old enough to remember when quotas in America existed for the
sake of discrimination, and I don’t want to see that again.” He gutted the
Civil Rights Commission, slashed federally funded jobs programs and called
welfare recipients “queens”

During hearings to honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. by
naming a holiday after him, Reagan said the jury was still out on whether King
was a communist sympathizer.

Black people know the damage that can be done in four years.
They’ve seen opportunities taken away by legislative action and executive
orders.

Not voting is not an option for black people. The management
of black lives doesn’t afford black people the choice of waiting four more
years for the revolution to start. Black people have been fighting a revolution
since 1619.

People with privilege might be willing to wait for the
candidate of the choosing, but black people have been conditioned to select the
lesser of evils.

Birth of a Nation

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Carl W. Kenney II

Carl was named the best serious columnist of 2011 by the North Carolina Press Association for his work with the News & Observer's community paper The Durham News and in 2016 by the Missouri Press Association for his columns in the Columbia Missourian. He is a columnist with the News & Observer and Co-Executive Producer of "God of the Oppressed" an upcoming documentary film on black liberation theology. He is a former Adjunct Professor at the University of Missouri - School of Journalism and Adjunct Instructor at Duke University, the Center for Documentary Studies. He received his Bachelor’s degree in Journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia. He furthered his education at Duke University and attained a Master of Divinity. He was named a Fellow in Pastoral Leadership Development at the Princeton Theological Seminary on May 14, 2005. He is a freelance writer with his commentary appearing in The Washington Post, Religious News Services,The Independent Weekly and The Durham Herald-Sun. Carl is the author of two novels: “Preacha’ Man” and the sequel “Backslide”.
He has led congregations in Missouri and North Carolina